Chapter 28

21.Legbourne.

1440. Alnwick ordains “that fro hense forthe ye suffre no seculere persone, woman ne childe, lyg be night in the dormytorye.” (Alnwick’s Visit.MS. f. 68.)

22.Nuncoton.

1531. Bishop Longland enjoins: “and that ye suffre nott eny men children to be brought upp, nor taught within your monastery, nor to resorte to eny of your susters, nouther to lye within your monastery, nor eny person young ne old to lye within your dorter, but oonly religious women.” (Archaeologia,XLVII, p. 58.)

23.Stixwould.

1440. At Alnwick’s visitation: “Dame Alice Thornton says that young secular folk female, of eight or ten years old, do lie in the dorter, but in separate beds.... Also she says that, as she believes, there are males and females, about eighteen in number, who board with divers nuns, not passing fourteen or sixteen years in age.... Dame Maud Shirwode speaks of the children that lie in the dorter.” Alnwick in his injunctions forbids seculars (“women ne childern”) to lie in the dorter or to be received as boarders without licence. (Alnwick’s Visit.MS. 75d, 76.)

Middlesex.

24.St Helen’s, Bishopsgate(London).

1298. The Prioress’ account for 25-6 Edward I, contains the following items which probably refer to child boarders. “And by xx s received from Dionisia Miles for her daughter [gap] ... after the Nativity of St John the Baptist. And by one mark received for the niece of Robert Morton [?].”P.R.O. Ministers’ Accounts, 1258/2.

1432. The injunctions sent by the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s to St Helen’s contain the item: “Also we ordeyne and injoyne yow, prioresse and convent, that noo seculere be lokkyd with inne the boundes of the cloystere; ne no seculere persones come withinne aftyr the belle of complyne, except wymment servaunts and mayde childeryne lerners.... Also we ordeyne and injoine that nonne have ne receyve noo schuldrin wyth hem into the house forseyde, but yif that the profite of the comonys turne to the vayle of the same howse.” (Dugdale,Mon.IV, pp. 553-4, wrongly dated 1439.)

*25.Stratford “atte Bowe.”

1346. In the will of John Hamond, pepperer, occurs the legacy: “To his niece the daughter of Thomas Hamond, residing with the nuns of Stratford, he leaves a sum of money for her maintenance.” (Sharpe,Cal. of Wills ... in the Court of Hustings, London,I, p. 516.) The girlmayhave been a nun, but if so the legacy is curiously worded.

Norfolk.

26.Carrow.

In Rye, W.,Carrow Abbey(1889), pp. 49-52, is a list of boarders at Carrow, compiled by Norris from account rolls now lost. Some of these were almost certainly children; I should suggest that those described as “son of” or “daughter of” N. or M. are children. On these lists, see G. G. Coulton,Mon. Schools in the Mid. Ages(Med. Studies, No. 10), p. 7.

27.Thetford.

1532. At Nykke’s visitation it was discovered that “John Jerves, gentleman, has a daughter being brought up (nutritam) in the priory and he pays nothing.” (Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich, ed. Jessopp (Camden Soc.), p. 304.)

Northamptonshire.

28.Catesby.

1442. At Alnwick’s visitation the Prioress, Margaret Wavere, deposed that “sister Agnes Allesley has six or seven young folk of both sexes that do lie in the dorter.” Alnwick makes the usual injunction against boarders, “ouer thage of x yeere, if thei be men, wommene ouer thage of a xj yere.”Linc. Visit.II, pp. 46, 51.

29.St Michael’s, Stamford.

1440. At Alnwick’s first visitation the sacrist “says that the prioress has seven or eight children, some male, some female, of twelve years of age and less, to her board and to teach them.” Alnwick forbids secular persons (“women ne childrene”) to lie in the dorter and boarders (“yong ne olde”) to be received without licence. (Alnwick’s Visit.MS. ff. 83-83d.)

1442. At Alnwick’s second visitation: “Dame Maud Multone says that little girls of seven or five years of age do lie in the dorter, contrary to my lord’s injunction.” (Ib.f. 39d.)

Oxfordshire.

30.Godstow.

1358. Bishop Gynewell writes: “Item we ordain that no lady of your said house shall have children, save only one or two females sojourning with them.” (Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynewell, f. 100.)

1445. Bishop Alnwick forbids boarders to be received “but if ye hafe lefe of hus or our successours, bysshope of Lincolne, but if it be yong childerne, a man not ouere ix yere of age and a woman of xii yere of age.” (Linc. Visit.II, p. 115.)

31.Littlemore.

1445. The Prioress says that “the daughter of John fitz Aleyn, steward of the house, and Ingram Warland’s daughter are boarders in the house and each of them pays fourpence a week.” These are clearly children, for another boarder “sometime the serving woman of Robert fitz Elys” is mentioned and she pays eightpence a week. Alnwick makes the usual injunction forbidding boarders “ouere the age of a man of nyne yere ne woman of xij yere, ne noght thaym wythe owten specyalle lefe of vs or our successours.” (Linc. Visit.II, pp. 217-8.)

Staffordshire.

32.Fairwell.

1367. Bishop Robert Stretton of Lichfield enjoined that “no nun was to keep with her for education more than one child, nor any male child over seven years of age and even that may not be done without the Bishop’s leave. If any have more they are to be removed before the Feast of Purification next.” (Reg. Robert de Stretton,II, p. 119.)

Somerset.

33.Cannington.

1407. The will of Thomas Woth contains the following legacy: “To the Prioress of Canyngton 40 marks to provide (inveniendum) Elizabeth my daughter, if she shall happen to live to the age of ten years.” He also leaves Elizabeth 11 marks as a marriage dowry. (Somerset Medieval Wills, ed. F. W. Weaver (Somerset Rec. Soc.),I, p. 28.)

Suffolk.

34.Redlingfield.

1514. At Bishop Nykke’s visitation Dame Grace Sampson deposed that “boys (pueri) sleep in the dorter and are harmful to the convent,” and another nun said the same. The Bishop ordained “that boys shall not lie in the dorter.” (Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich, ed. Jessopp (Camden Soc.), pp. 139-40.)

Warwickshire.

35.Polesworth.

1537. Henry VIII’s commissioners addressed a letter to Cromwell on behalf of this house, representing among other things “the repayre and resort that ys made to the gentylmens childern and studiounts that ther doo lif, to the nombre sometyme of xxxtiand sometyme xltiand moo, that their be right vertuously brought upp.” (Dugdale,Mon.II, p. 363.) The house at this time contained an abbess and twelve nuns.

Yorkshire.

36.Arden.

1306. Archbishop Greenfield decreed that no girls or boarders were to be taken without special licence of the Archbishop. All girls staying in the house without authority were to be removed within eight days. (V.C.H. Yorks.III, p. 113.)

37.Arthington.

1315. Archbishop Greenfield decreed that no boys or secular persons were to sleep in the dorter with the nuns.

1318. Archbishop Melton repeated the decree. (V.C.H. Yorks.III, p. 188.)

38.Esholt.

1315. Archbishop Greenfield decreed that all women boarders over the age of twelve were to be removed within six days and no more taken without special licence.

1318. Archbishop Melton repeated the decree. (V.C.H. Yorks.III, p. 161.)

1537. Among the debts owing to the Priory at the Dissolution was one of 33s.from Walter Wood of Timble, in the parish of Otley, for his child’s board for a year and a half, ended at Lent, 28 Hen. VIII. (Yorks. Archaeol. Journ.IX, p. 321, note 23.)

39.Hampole.

1313. Archbishop Greenfield granted the convent licence to receive a young girl Agnes de Langthwayt as a boarder, at the instance “nobilis viri Ade de Everyngham.”

1314. He issued a decree that no male children over five years of age should be permitted in the house, “as the Archbishop finds has been the practice.” (V.C.H. Yorks.III, pp. 163-4.)

40.Marrick.

1252. Archbishop Gray forbade any girl or woman to be taken as boarder or to be taught without special licence. (V.C.H. Yorks.III, p. 117.)

41.Moxby.

1314. Archbishop Greenfield forbade boarders or girls over twelve to be taken without licence. (V.C.H. Yorks.III, p. 239.)

42.Nunappleton.

1489. Archbishop Rotheram enjoined: “Item þat yee take noe perhendinauntes or sogerners into your place from hensforward, but if þei be children or ellis old persones, by which availe by liklyhod may growe to your place.” (V.C.H. Yorks.III, 173, and Dugdale,Mon.V, p. 654).

43.Nunburnholme.

1318. Archbishop Melton forbade persons of either sex over twelve years of age to be maintained as boarders. (V.C.H. Yorks.III, p. 119.)

44.Nunkeeling.

1314. Archbishop Greenfield forbade boarders to be taken, or girls to be kept in the house after the age of twelve years. (V.C.H. Yorks.III, p. 120.)

*45.Nunmonkton.

1429. Isabel Salvayn leaves “xiij s iiij d to be paid for Alice Thorp at Nunmunkton for her board.” (Test. Ebor.I, p. 419.)

46.Rosedale.

1315. Archbishop Greenfield decreed, under pain of the greater excommunication, that no nun was to cause a girl or boy to sleep under any consideration in the dorter, and if any nun broke this command, the Prioress, under pain of deposition, was to signify her name without delay to the Archbishop. (V.C.H. Yorks.III, p. 174.)

47.St Clement’s, York.

1310. Archbishop Greenfield forbade girls over twelve as boarders.

1317. Archbishop Melton forbade little girls, or males of any age, or secular women to sleep in the dorter with the nuns. (V.C.H. Yorks.III, p. 129.)

48.Sinningthwaite.

1315. Archbishop Greenfield enjoined the Prioress and Subprioress not to permit boys or girls to eat flesh meat in Advent or Sexagesima, or during Lent eggs or cheese, in the refectory, contrary to the honesty of religion, but at those seasons when they ought to eat such things, they were to be assigned other places in which to eat them.

1319. Archbishop Melton forbade girls over twelve to be retained without special licence. (V.C.H. Yorks.III, p. 177.)

*49.Swine.

1345. Peter del Hay of Spaldynton leaves in his will “to Joan my daughter residing (manenti) in Swyn vj s viij d.” (Test. Ebor.I, p. 12.) This is probably a boarder in the convent, perhaps a child.

15th century. Thorold Rogers (Six Centuries of Work and Wages(1909), p. 166), says: “During the course of the [fifteenth] century I find it was the practice of country gentlefolks to send their daughters for education to the nunneries, and to pay a certain sum for their board. A number of such persons are enumerated as livingen pensionat the small nunnery of Swyn in Yorkshire. Only one roll of expenditure for this religious house survives in the Record Office, but it is quite sufficient to prove and illustrate the custom.” I have been unable to trace this roll in the Record Office.

NOTE C.

NUNNERY DISPUTES.

Other instances of nunnery disputes may be quoted, among which Peckham’s letter to the Holy Sepulchre, Canterbury, is a good example: “If there be any nun above you who is quarrelsome and sharp and is of custom unbearable towards her sisters, we order her to be separated from the communion of the convent according to the form of the rule, and to be kept in some solitary place (so that meanwhile no man or woman have conversation with or access to her) until she shall be brought back to humility of spirit and show herself amiable and devout to all. Therefore let there cease among you quarrels, altercations and sharp words, which stain and deform the splendours of monastic honour. And for such contumelious members who have to be separated as aforesaid we assign that dark room under the dorter, if you have none other more suitable”[1658]. The nuns of Wroxall in 1338 were warned to “cease from scoldings, reproofs and other evil words” and were particularly told not to speak “en reproce ne en vilenie” of a certain Dame Margaret de Acton, who had evidently been guilty of some serious fault, but had been duly corrected by the Visitor[1659]; and in the same year it was ordained at Sopwell that “if it happen that any one scold ... let her be placed in silence by all and do penance for three days”[1660]. At Heynings in 1392 Bokyngham ordered “that all the nuns treat their sisters affably, not with an austere but with a benignant countenance and with sisterly affection, nor visit them with railing and hurtful words in public, especially in the presence of laymen, nor threaten or scold them, on pain, etc”[1661]. At Elstow in 1421-2 there was an injunction against the formation of cliques, upon the need for which light isthrown by thedetectaat Alnwick’s visitation of Gracedieu[1662], “That no nun make any secret cabals or say or imagine anything by way of insinuation or disparagement, whereby charity, unity or the comeliness of religion may be hindered or troubled in the convent”[1663].

Thedetectaat visitations often give details as to the ill-temper or insubordination of individuals. At Wothorpe in 1323 Bishop Burghersh “ordered inquiry into certain irregularities within the priory, caused by the discords raised among the nuns by sister Joan de Bonnwyche”[1664]. At Littlemore one of the nuns deposed that Dame Agnes Marcham “is very quarrelsome and rebellious and will not do her work like the others”; it appears that the convent resented the fact that although she had worn the habit of profession for twelve years she was not expressly professed and refused to make public profession; she on her part asserted that “she does not mean to make express profession while she stays in that place, because of the ill-fame which is current thereabouts concerning that place and also because of the barrenness and poverty which in likelihood will betake the place on account of the slenderness of the place’s revenues,” and she proceeded to give details of the access to the priory of two scholars of Oxford and a parish chaplain[1665]. It is difficult to tell who was in the right; Littlemore certainly was a place of ill-repute and went from bad to worse, but Agnes Marcham had stayed there for half her lifetime (she had entered at the age of thirteen and was twenty-six or twenty-eight at the time of the visitation) and it looks as though she had really no intention of departing, but found the threat to do so useful[1666]. At Godstow in the same year it was sister Maud, a laywoman, who caused trouble; she was very rebellious against the abbess and rumour ran high in the convent that she had “obtained a bull from the apostolic see to the prejudice of the monastery and without the abbess’s knowledge”[1667]. At Easebourne (1524) the subprioress Alice Hill said that three of the younger nuns were disobedient to her in the absence of the Prioress; but the three delinquents and another nun deposed that “Lady Alice Hill is too haughty and rigorous and cannot bear patiently with her sisters” and the Visitor apparently considered that the complaint was justified, for

afterwards Lady Alice Hill, subprioress, appeared and humbly submitted herself to correction, in the presence of the said prioress and co-sisters, upon what has been discovered against her in the visitation. Afterwards my lord enjoined her that from henceforth she should conduct herself well and religiously in all things towards the said prioress and nuns; and as to the other portion of her penance he adjourned it for a time. After doing which (he) enjoined all to be obedient to the Lady Prioress and in her absence to the said subprioress[1668].

The difficulty was perhaps the old one, that crabbed age and youth cannot live together. At Rusper, when the same Visitor came there,it was found that the four sisters were disturbed by the intrigues of an external visitor, for the nuns deposed “that a certain William Tychenor hath frequent access to the said priory and there sows discord between the prioress, sisters and other persons living there”[1669]; sometimes the lay servants of a house seem to have stirred up quarrels among their mistresses and in 1302 John of Pontoise ordered the nuns of Wherwell “to punish well secular persons, both sisters and others, whoever they may be, who reply improperly and impudently to the religious ladies, and especially those who sow quarrels and disputes among the ladies”[1670].

Injunctions as to the making of corrections usually had in view the prevention of ill feeling, by ensuring that such corrections should not be made in a harsh or unfair manner and should take place only in the chapter-house and not in the presence of strangers. It will be remembered that the wicked prioress of Catesby, Margaret Wavere, used to rebuke and reproach her nuns before secular folk, and treat them with great cruelty; her the Bishop charged

vnder payne of cursyng that moderly and benygnely ye trete your susters, specyally in correctyng thaire defautes, so that ye make your correcyones oonly in the chaptre hous of suche defautz and excesse as be open and in presence of your sustres[1671].

Bokyngham sent a long and detailed injunction on the subject to Elstow in 1387:

In making corrections the abbess, prioress, and others of superior rank shall so observe a moderate and modest temperance and an equitable reasonableness, that having laid aside all hatred and malice and excessive rigour, they shall in charitable zeal proceed to (deal with) the complaints, offences and faults reported to them and shall hear the accused parties, silencing or repelling their excuses, punishing, correcting and reforming their offences and excesses, grave and venial, without harshness or railing words and quarrels or abuse, according as the quality of the fault, the compunction of the delinquents and the repetition or frequency of the offence demand it. And when faults and offences have been punished and excesses corrected let them not reiterate fresh reproaches, but treat their fellow-nuns affably, not with an austere but with a benignant countenance, nor visit them with railing and insulting words in public, especially in the presence of laymen, nor scold them when they have committed excesses, but only in the chapter deal with all that concerns the discipline of regular observance[1672].

For an injunction to the nuns on obedience see Woodlock’s injunction to Romsey in 1311:

Item, because they are unaware that amongst the vows of religion the vow of obedience is the greater, it is ordered that the younger ladiesreverently obey the seniors and especially their presidents and if any rebels are found they shall be sharply rebuked in chapter before all and, the fault growing, the penalty of disobedience shall be increased[1673].

At Rosedale, where in 1306 the nuns had been warned not to quarrel, it was enacted nine years later that

any nun disobedient or rebellious in receiving correction was for each offence to receive a discipline from the president in chapter and say the seven penitential psalms with the litany, and if still rebellious the archbishop would impose a still more severe penance[1674].

It is to be feared that these quarrels sometimes got to blows. Besides the notorious instances of Margaret Wavere and Katherine Wells, the excommunication of three nuns of St Michael’s, Stamford, for laying violent hands upon a novice may be quoted[1675]. Of another kind were the assaults of a certain nun of Romsey, who was excommunicated for attacking a vicar in church[1676], and of a Prioress of Rowney. It appears from the court rolls of Munden Furnivall (1370) that the latter “had been guilty of a hand to hand scuffle with a chaplain, called Alexander of Great Munden; each was fined for drawing blood from the other and the lady also for raising the hue and cry unjustly”[1677]. In both cases the nun was blamed, but it is perhaps permissible to quote in this connection an anecdote told by Thomas of Chantimpré:

When I was in Brussels, the great city of Brabant, there came to me a maiden of lowly birth, but comely, who besought me with many tears to have mercy upon her. When therefore I had bidden her tell me what ailed her, then she cried out amidst her sobs: “Alas, wretched that I am! for a certain priest would fain have ravished me by force, and he began to kiss me against my will; wherefore I smote him with the back of my hand, so that his nose bled; and for this, as the clergy now tell me, I must needs go to Rome.” Then I, scarce withholding my laughter, yet speaking as in all seriousness, affrighted her as though she had committed a grievous sin; and at length, having made her swear that she would fulfil my bidding, I said, “I command thee, in virtue of thy solemn oath, that if this priest or any other shall attempt to do thee violence with kisses or embraces, then thou shalt smite him sore with thy clenched fist, even to the striking out, if possible, of his eye; and in this matter thou shalt spare no order of men, for it is as lawful for thee to strike in defence of thy chastity, as to fight for thy life.” With which words I moved all that stood by, and the maiden herself, to vehement laughter and gladness[1678].

The list of faults given in the “Additions to the Rules” of Syon Abbey, contains several references to ill temper, though such references are, to be sure, no more proof that the faults were committed than are the model forms of self-examination (“Have I committed murder?”) sometimes given to-day to children in preparationfor the Communion service. Among “greuous defautes” are mentioned, “if any suster say any wordes of despyte, reprefe, schame or vylony to any suster or brother,” “if any sowe dyscorde amonge the sustres and brethren,” “if any be founde a preuy rouner or bakbyter.” Among “more greuous defautes” are:

if any whan thei fal chydyng or stryuyng togyder, if the souereyne or priores, or any serche say thus—“Sit nomen domini benedictum” wyl not cese, knokkyng themselfe upon their brestes, answerynge and saynge mekely, and withe a softe spyryte “Mea culpa” ... and so utterly cese, if any manesche by chere or wordes to smyte another at any tyme, or for to auenge her own injurye, or els by ungodly wordes repreve another of her contre, or kynrede, or of any other sclaunderous fortune, or chaunse fallen at any tyme.

Among “most greuous defautes” are:

If any ley vyolente hande upon her souereyne or spituosly smyte or wounde her or elles make any profer to smyte be sygne or token leftying up her fest, stykke, staffe, stone, or any other wepen what ever it be, or else schofte, pusche, or sperne any suster from her withe armes or scholders, handes or fete, violently, in wrekyng of her oun wrethe[1679].

NOTE D.

GAY CLOTHES.

A council at London in 1200 had restrained the black nuns from wearing coloured headdresses[1680]but the standard English decree on the subject was that issued by the council of Oxford in 1222.

Since it is necessary that the female sex, so weak against the wiles of the ancient enemy, should be fortified by many remedies, we decree that nuns and other women dedicated to divine worship shall not wear a silken wimple, nor dare to carry silver or golden tiring-pins in their veil. Neither shall they, nor monks nor regular canons, wear belts of silk, or adorned with gold or silver, nor henceforth use burnet or any other unlawful cloth. Also let them measure their gown according to the dimension of their body, so that it does not exceed the length of the body, but let it suffice them to be clad, as beseems them, in a robe reaching to the ankles; and let none but a consecrated nun wear a ring and let her be content with one alone[1681].

Fifteen years later a synod declared:

Item, we forbid to monks, regular canons and nuns coloured garments or bed clothes, save those dyed black. And when they ride, let them use decent saddles and bridles and saddle-cloths[1682]. And nuns are not to usetrained and pleated dresses, or any exceeding the length of the body, nor delicate or coloured furs; nor shall they presume to wear silver tiring-pins in their veil[1683].

These regulations were repeated almost word for word by William of Wykeham in his injunctions to Romsey and Wherwell in 1387[1684]. With them may be compared the rule as to dress in force at Syon Abbey in the fifteenth century:

whiche (clothes) in nowyse schal be ouer curyous, but playne and homly, witheoute weuynge of any straunge colours of silke, golde or syluer, hauynge al thynge of honeste and profyte, and nothyng of vanyte, after the rewle; ther knyves unpoynted and purses beyng double of lynnen clothe and not of sylke[1685].

The unsuccessful efforts of monastic Visitors to enforce these rules have been described; a few instances may be added here to show the directions in which the nuns erred. Peckham wrote to Godstow:

Concerning the garments of the nuns let the rule of St Benedict be carefully observed. For which reason we forbid them ever in future to wear cloth of burnet, nor gathered tunics nor to make themselves garments of an immoderate width with excessive pleats (nec etiam birrorum immoderantia vestes sibi faciant latitudine fluctuantes); with this nevertheless carefully observing what was aforetime ordained in such matters by the Council of Oxford[1686].

Buckingham’s injunction to Elstow in 1387 gives some interesting details; he forbade the nuns to wear any other veil than that of profession, or to “adorn their countenances” by arranging it in a becoming fashion, spreading out the white veil, which was meant to be worn underneath:

(Ainsi qu’il est pour le monde et les coursUn art, un goût de modes et d’atours,Il est aussi des modes pour le voile;Il est un art de donner d’heureux tours[1687]À l’étamine, à la plus simple toile.)[1688]

They were not to wear gowns of black wide at the bottom, or turned back with fur at the wrists[1689], and they were in no wise to use “wide girdles or belts plaited (spiratis) or adorned with silver, nor wear these above their tunics open to the gaze of man”[1690]. Curious details are also given by Bishop Spofford, writing to the nuns of Lymbrook in 1437; their habit was to “be formed after relygyon in sydnesse and wydnesse, forbedyng long traynes in mantellys and kyrtellys and almaner of spaires and open semes in the same kyrtellys”[1691]. “Large collars, barred girdles and laced shoes” were forbidden at Swine in1298[1692], red dresses and long supertunics “like secular women” at Wilberfoss in 1308[1693]; at Nunmonkton in 1397 (after Margaret Fairfax’s fashionable clothes had been discovered) a general injunction was made to the nuns “not to use henceforth silken clothes, and especially silken veils, nor precious furs, nor rings on their fingers, nor tunics laced-up or fastened with brooches nor any robes, called in English ‘gownes,’ after the fashion of secular women”[1694]. These Northern houses were continually in need of admonition, sometimes their slashed tunics, sometimes their barred girdles, sometimes their shoes being condemned[1695]. Bishop Alnwick found silken veils at Langley, Studley and Rothwell[1696]; Bishop Fitzjames forbade silver and gilt pins and kirtles of fustian or worsted at Wix in 1509[1697]; and at Carrow in 1532 the subprioress complained that some of the nuns not only wore silk girdles, but had the impudence to commend the use thereof[1698].

Nor could nuns always resist the temptation to let their shorn hair grow again, e.g. at the visitation of Romsey by the commissary of the Prior of Canterbury in 1502, the cellaress deposed “that Mary Tystede and Agnes Harvey wore their hair long”[1699]. Eudes Rigaud had some difficulty in this matter with the frivolous nuns of his diocese of Rouen; at Villarceaux in 1249 he recorded: “They all wear their hair long to their chins,” and at Montivilliers he had to condemn ringlets[1700]. One is reminded of the scene inJane Eyre, where Mr Brocklehurst visits Lowood:

Suddenly his eye gave a blink, as if he had met something that either dazzled or shocked its pupil; turning, he said in more rapid accents than he had hitherto used: “Miss Temple, Miss Temple, what—whatis that girl with curled hair? Red hair, ma’am, curled—curled all over?” and extending his cane he pointed to the awful object, his hand shaking as he did so. “It is Julia Severn,” replied Miss Temple, very quietly. “Julia Severn, ma’am! And why has she, or any other, curled hair? Why, in defiance of every precept and principle of this house, does she conform to the world so openly—here in an evangelical, charitable establishment—as to wear her hair a mass of curls?... Tell all the first form to rise up and direct their faces to the wall.”... He scrutinised the reverse of these living medals some five minutes, then pronounced sentence. These words fell like the knell of doom: “All those top-knots must be cut off.”

Or, as Eudes Rigaud expressed it some seven centuries earlier: “Quod comam non nutriatis ultra aures.”

NOTE E.

CONVENT PETS IN LITERATURE.

It would be possible to compile a pretty anthology of convent pets, which have played a not undistinguished part in literature. The best known of all, perhaps, are Madame Eglentyne’s little dogs, upon which Chaucer looked with a kindly unepiscopal eye:

Of smale houndes had she, that she feddeWith rosted flesh, or milk and wastel-breed,But sore weep she if oon of hem were deed,Or if men smoot it with a yerde smerte:And al was conscience and tendre herte[1701].

The tender-hearted Prioress risked a terrible fate by so pampering her dogs, if we are to believe the awful warning related by the knight of La Tour-Landry, to wean his daughters from similar habits:

Ther was a lady that had two litell doggis, and she loued hem so that she toke gret plesaunce in the sight and feding of hem. And she made euery day dresse and make for her disshes with soppes of mylke, and after gaue hem flesshe. But there was ones a frere that saide to her that it was not wel done that the dogges were fedde and made so fatte, and the pore pepill so lene and famished for hunger. And so the lady, for his saieing, was wrothe with hym, but she wolde not amende it. And after she happed she deied, and there fell a wonder meruailous sight, for there was seyn euer on her bedde ij litell blake dogges, and in her deyeng thei were about her mouthe and liked it, and whanne she was dede, there the dogges had lyked it was al blacke as cole, as a gentillwoman tolde me that sawe it and named me the lady[1702].

Poor Madame Eglentyne!

The anthologist would, however, have to go further back than Chaucer, into the eleventh century, and begin with that ill-fated donkey, which belonged to sister Alfrâd of Homburg, and which thewit of a nameless goliard and the devotion of the monks of St Augustine’s, Canterbury, have preserved for undying fame[1703]:

Exquisite ending! “The Lord will give thee another donkey.” With what delighted applause must the unknown jongleur have been greeted by the monks or nobles, who first listened after dinner to this little masterpiece of humour.

All the convent pets who are famed in literature came by a coincidence to a bad end. Our anthologist would seize on two other hapless creatures, both of them birds, Philip Sparrow and the never-to-be-forgotten Vert-Vert. Philip Sparrow needs no introduction to English readers; Skelton was never in happier vein than when he sang the dirge of that pet of Joanna Scrope, boarder at Carrow Priory, dead at the claws of a “vylanous false cat.” Space allows only a few lines of the long poem to be quoted here. It begins with the office for the dead, sung by the mourning mistress over her bird:

Pla ce bo,Who is there, who?Di le xi,Dame Margery;Fa, re, my, my,Wherefore and why, why?For the sowle of Philip Sparowe,That was late slayn at Carowe,Among the Nones Blake,For that swete soules sake,And for all sparowes soules,Set in our bederollesPater noster qui,With anAve Mari,And with the corner of a CredeThe more shalbe your mede.Whan I remembre agaynHow mi Philyp was slayn,Neuer halfe the payneWas betwene you twayne,Pyramus and Thesbe,As than befell to me:I wept and I wayled,The tearys doune hayled;But nothynge it auayledTo call Phylyp agayne,Whom Gyb our cat hath slayne.·····It was so prety a fole,It wold syt on a stole,And lerned after my scoleFor to kepe his cut,With, Phyllyp, kepe your cut!It had a veluet cap,And wold syt upon my lap,And seke after small wormes,And somtyme white bred crommes;And many tymes and ofteBetwene my brestes softeIt wolde lye and rest;It was propre and prest.Somtyme he wolde gaspeWhan he sawe a waspe;A fly or a gnat,He wolde flye at that;And prytely he wold pantWhan he saw an ant;Lord, how he wolde pryAfter the butterfly!Lorde, how he wolde hopAfter the grassop!And whan I sayd, Phyp, Phyp,Than he wold lepe and skyp,And take me by the lyp.Alas, it wyll me slo,That Phillyp is gone me fro!Si in i qui ta tes,Alas, I was euyll at ease!De pro fun dis cla ma vi,Whan I sawe my sparowe dye!·····That vengeaunce I aske and crye,By way of exclamacyon,On all the hole nacyonOf cattes wyld and tame;God send them sorowe and shame!That cat specyallyThat slew so cruellyMy lytell prety sparoweThat I brought vp at Carowe ...[1704].

It is impossible for a cat-lover to leave the whole nation of cats under this terrific curse. Yet literature will supply no nunnery cat beside the unhappy Gyb and the uncharacterised cat of theAncren Riwle. We must needs turn to the monks, and borrow the truer estimate of feline qualities made in the eighth century by an exiled Irish student, who sat over his books in a distant monastery of Carinthia, and wrote upon the margin of his copy of St Paul’s Epistles this little poem on his white cat:

I and Pangur Bán, my cat,’Tis a like task we are at;Hunting mice is his delight,Hunting words I sit all night.Better far than praise of men’Tis to sit with book and pen;Pangur bears me no ill-will,He, too, plies his simple skill.’Tis a merry thing to seeAt our tasks how glad are we,When at home we sit and findEntertainment to our mind.Oftentimes a mouse will strayIn the hero Pangur’s way;Oftentimes my keen thought setTakes a meaning in its net.’Gainst the wall he sets his eyeFull and fierce and sharp and sly;’Gainst the wall of knowledge IAll my little wisdom try.When a mouse darts from its den,O! how glad is Pangur then;O! what gladness do I proveWhen I solve the doubts I love.So in peace our task we ply,Pangur Bán, my cat, and I;In our arts we find our bliss,I have mine and he has his.Practice every day has madePangur perfect in his trade;I get wisdom day and night,Turning darkness into light[1705].

O cat! even at the cost of relevancy we have done thee honour.

Two little tragedies of the cloister are concerned with parrots—yet with what different birds and what different mistresses! In the twelfth century Nigel Wireker tells of an ill-bred and ill-fated parrot, kept in a nunnery, who told tales about the nuns and was poisoned by them for his pains:

Saepe malaPsittacus in thalamum domina redeunte puellasProdit et illorum verba tacenda refert;Nescius ille loqui; sed nescius immo tacereProfert plus aequo Psittacus oris habens.Hinc avibus crebro miscente aconita puellaDiscat ut ante mori quam didicisse loqui;Sunt et aves aliae quae toto tempore vitaeReligiosorum claustra beata colunt[1706].

Quite other was the fate of Vert-Vert, whose tragedy told with exquisite irony by Gresset in the eighteenth century deserves a place on every shelf and in every heart which holdsThe Rape of the Lock. Vert-Vert was a parrot who belonged to the nuns of Nevers, the most beautiful, most amiable, the most devout parrot in the world. The convent of Nevers spoiled Vert-Vert as no bird has ever been spoiled:

Pas n’est besoin, je pense, de décrireLes soins des sœurs, des nonnes, c’est tout dire;Et chaque mère, après son directeur,N’aimait rien tant. Même dans plus d’un cœur,Ainsi l’écrit un chroniqueur sincère,Souvent l’oiseau l’emporta sur le père.Il partageait, dans ce paisible lieu,Tous les sirops dont le cher père en Dieu,Grâce aux bienfaits des nonnettes sucrées,Réconfortait ses entrailles sacrées.Objet permis à leur oisif amour,Vert-Vert était l’âme de ce séjour....Des bonnes sœurs égayant les travaux,Il béquetait et guimpes et bandeaux;Il n’était point d’agréable partieS’il n’y venait briller, caracoler,Papillonner, siffler, rossignoler;Il badinait, mais avec modestie;Avec cet air timide et tout prudentQu’une novice a même en badinant.

He fed in the frater, and between meals the nuns’ pockets were always full of bon-bons for his delectation. He slept in the dorter, and happy the nun whose cell he honoured with his presence; Vert-Vert always chose the young and pretty novices. Above all he was learned; he talked like a book, and all the nuns had taught him their chants and their prayers:

Il disait bien son Benedicite,Etnotre mère, etvotre charité; ...Il était là maintes filles savantesQui mot pour mot portaient dans leurs cerveauxTous les noëls anciens et nouveaux.Instruit, formé par leurs leçons fréquentes,Bientôt l’élève égala ses régentes;De leur ton même, adroit imitateurIl exprimait la pieuse lenteur,Les saints soupirs, les notes languissantesDu chant des sœurs, colombes gémissantes.Finalement Vert-Vert savait par cœurTout ce que sait une mère de chœur.

Small wonder that the fame of this pious bird spread far and wide; small wonder that pilgrims came from all directions to the abbey parlour to hear him talk. But alas, it was this very fame which led to his undoing. The physical tragedy of Philip Sparrow, an unlearned bird of frivolous tastes, pales before the moral tragedy of Vert-Vert. One day his renown reached the ears of a distant convent of nuns at Nantes, many miles further down the river Loire; and they conceived a violent desire to see him:

Désir de fille est un feu qui dévore,Désir de nonne est cent fois pire encore.

They wrote to their fortunate sisters of Nevers, begging that Vert-Vert might be sent in a ship to visit them. Consternation at Nevers. The grand chapter was held; the younger nuns would have preferred death to parting with the darling parrot, but their elders judged it impolitic to refuse and to Nantes must Vert-Vert go for a fortnight. The parrot was placed on board a ship; but the ship

Portait aussi deux nymphes, trois dragons,Une nourrice, un moine, deux Gascons:Pour un enfant qui sort du monastère,C’était échoir en dignes compagnons.

At first Vert-Vert was confused and silent among the unseemly jests of the women and the Gascons and the oaths of the boatmen. But too soon his innocent heart was acquainted with evil; desiring always to please he repeated all that he heard; no evil word escaped him; by the end of his journey he had forgotten all that he had learned in the nunnery, but he had become a pretty companion for a boatload of sinners. Nantes was reached; Vert-Vert (all unwilling) was carried off to the convent, and the nuns came running to the parlour to hear the saintly bird. But horror upon horrors, nothing but oaths and blasphemies fell from Vert-Vert’s beak. He apostrophised sister Saint-Augustin with “la peste te crève,” and

Jurant, sacrant d’une voix dissolue,Faisant passer tout l’enfer en revue,Les B, les F, voltigeaient sur son bec.Les jeunes sœurs crurent qu’il parlait grec.

The scandalised nuns dispatched Vert-Vert home again without delay. His own convent received him in tears. Nine of the most venerablesisters debated his punishment; two were for his death; two for sending him back to the heathen land of his birth; but the votes of the other five decided his punishment:

On le condamne à deux mois d’abstinence,Trois de retraite et quatre de silence;Jardins, toilette, alcôve et biscuits,Pendant ce temps, lui seront interdits.

Moreover the ugliest lay sister, a veiled ape, an octogenarian skeleton, was made the guardian of poor Vert-Vert, who had always preferred the youngest and coyest of the novices. Little remains to be told. Vert-Vert, covered with shame and taught by misfortune, became penitent, forgot the dragoons and the monk, and showed himself once more “plus dévot qu’un chanoine.” The happy nuns cut short his penance; the convent kept fête, the dorters were decked with flowers, all was song and tumult. But alas, Vert-Vert, passing too soon from a fasting diet to the sweets that were pressed upon him:

Bourré de sucre, et brûlé de liqueursVert-Vert, tombant sur un tas de dragées,En noir cyprès vit ses roses changées[1707].

Doubtless so godly an end consoled the nuns for his untimely death. Yet one hardly knows which to prefer, the regenerate or the unregenerate Vert-Vert. The appreciative reader, remembering the inspired volubility with which (after such short practice) he greeted the nuns of Nantes, is almost moved to regret the destruction of what one of Kipling’s soldiers would call “a wonderful gift of language.” There is an apposite passage in Jasper Mayne’s comedy ofThe City Match(1639), in which a lady describes the missionary efforts of her Puritan waiting-woman:

Yesterday I wentTo see a lady that has a parrot: my womanWhile I was in discourse converted the fowl,And now it can speak nought but Knox’s works;So there’s a parrot lost.

NOTE F.

THE MORAL STATE OF LITTLEMORE PRIORY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

Littlemore Priory, near Oxford, in the early sixteenth century, was in such grave disorder that it may justly be described as one of the worst nunneries of which record has survived. Its state was, as usual, largely due to a particularly bad prioress, Katherine Wells.The following account of it is taken from the record of Bishop Atwater’s visitations in 1517 and 1518, the first held by his commissary Edmund Horde, the second by the bishop in person[1708].

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